Blogs by Sundari Silks
Celebrate the dupattas!
This elegant piece of clothing was always open to tremendous ways of dressing up our ensemble. Traditionally a dupatta was worn to denote modesty and worn on the upper part of the body as an “odhni”, “chunri” or dupatta. You can fashion out a dupatta with a variety of materials...
Timeless Motifs
Colours and motifs in our Kanchipuram sarees add sparkle to our celebrations of festivals and weddings. The love for ornamentation binds our whole nation together; in our Kanchipuram saris, we have superlative examples of artistry and craftsmanship. The Kanchipuram weavers produced elaborate designed textiles with their own distinctive patterns. The zari...
Kasuti - Embroidery of Karnataka
Each region of India has a heritage of different kinds of embroideries peculiar to each region. These embroideries are spontaneous expressions of the local culture. Kasuti, the needle speciality of the south is the embroidery of Karnataka. Kasida means embroidery in Hindi, while Kasuti is its equivalent in Canarese. This...
South Indian Wedding Rituals
The wedding season has arrived with festive revelry. The vibrant culture, gleeful rituals and celebrations of great Indian weddings will truly melt one's heart. A smiling bride, anointed in turmeric and Kumkumam, with henna in her hands, colourful garlands on her person, Jasmine flowers adorned on her hair, and clad...
Kantha embroidery
Living traditions of embroidery in India demonstrate the validity of one of the world's richest cultural expressions. It was a language used by women to communicate their wisdom and the values they protect and nurture for themselves and their families. Bengal embroideries were commissioned by Portuguese and English at Satgaon,...
The Chettinad Wardrobe – Motifs
The remarkable motifs inspired by the architecture of a thousand temples and the natural environment of Kanchipuram may be seen in the most recognised woven patterns of manga, gopuram, rudraksham and kamalam motifs. In the same way, in our Chettinad wardrobe Diwali collection, our weavers bring alive the majesty of...
The Chettinad Wardrobe
The motifs woven in our silk sarees have always borne special meaning offering insights into our weaving traditions and society at large.The symbols which adorned the temple walls went into our silks to signify auspiciousness. The Gopurams of South Indian temples saw a design equivalent in the borders of a...
Zardozi embroidery
India is home to most beautiful embroidery skills like zardozi, chikankari, sujni, kantha, kasuti, mirror work, toda. Zardozi craft was a luxurious metallic embellishment of India, dates back to Vedic times. It also adorned the nobilities of Moghul Royal courts, from their court costumes, shawls and their shoes. Zardoz were...
The festival of nine nights
Being one of the most diverse nations of the world, India is a meeting place for a large number of cultures, languages, religions, traditions of art and ideologies. The fluid boundaries of regional traditions provides many perspectives of celebrating Indian festivals. One such function is Navaratri, the festival of “nine...
Drapes of India – The Maharashtrian Nauvari saree
The astonishing versatility of a saree in India has been expressed by the countless women who wear this garment in different styles. In our blog this month on Drapes of India, we look at the Nauvari saree, the distinctive nine yards saree of Maharashtra. The history and origin of the...
Raw silks of India - Tussar
India is home to varieties of raw silk, and tussar is one amongst the four varieties of silk – the others being Mulberry, Eri and muga silk. The Mulberry silk is the most commonly cultivated silk from a silkworm named bombyx mori. The silk yarn fibre is characterised by a...
